Jason Elliott was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2013 and is the Associate Head of School of Law at Ulster University. Â As a practising barrister, he has developed a largely civil practice representing individuals, companies and public bodies in litigation. This covers a wide range of areas including personal injuries, wills and employment law. In terms of employment law, he has represented both applicants and respondents in the Industrial Tribunal. Â At Ulster University, Jason lectures extensively on the civil areas of practise such as Equity and Trusts and delivers employment law lectures for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Claimant entitled to notice pay, holiday pay and arrears when he was dismissed by text message after 2 months of employment.
The claimant worked for the respondent as Head Chef from May 2024 until August 2024. The respondent ran a restaurant in Lisburn. The claimant was directed by the Tribunal to provide copies of all bank statements, WhatsApp messages, emails, text messages, handwritten notes, diary entries or any documents relevant to the claim by the end of April 2025. The claimant only brought two pages of WhatsApp messages to the hearing. Â Additionally, the claimant could not produce a contract which established more than the statutory minimum notice period. Â
The claimant was claiming arrears in pay, holiday pay and notice pay. During his short period of employment, he had received 20 hours of holiday pay. Â
The claimant was dismissed by way of text message however as it was only just over two months of employment the right not to be unfairly dismissed had not crystallised. The Tribunal examined the payslips that had been provided by the respondent and found that the claimant was not paid for one shift of 11 hours and that he had only received 20 hours of holiday pay when he was entitled to 68 for the period of his employment. Â Additionally, no notice pay was given at all and the statutory minimum was one week. Therefore, a total award was made of ÂŁ1,030.94.Â
The importance of ensuring that there is a proper end to the employment relationship even when it is before the one-year period of continuous service is clear here. This could have been dealt with at the end of the relationship by checking to ensure that notice period and outstanding holiday pay had been resolved. Such checks should be routine when an individual is leaving their employment to avoid situations in which Tribunal action is taken. Â
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